Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- International leaders must prevent the financial crisis from spreading and revamp institutions to prevent a repeat of the credit crunch, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said ahead of a meeting outside Paris.

``Our first priority at the moment is to stop the contagion,'' Brown said speaking to reporters as he arrived in Versailles today. ``There are lessons to be learned from what happened in the subprime market. We need to learn the lesson quickly. We will be looking at how we will reform the international financial system.''

Today's meeting of the leaders of Europe's second and third largest economies aims to prepare the European Union's position for a Nov. 15 summit in Washington of world leaders. Sarkozy holds the 27-member EU's rotating presidency while Brown's rescue of British banks has become the model both for other European countries and the U.S.

``France and Britain are trying to coordinate their positions to find solutions to this historic crisis,'' Sarkozy said as he greeted Brown. ``We want concrete decisions so that the causes of this crisis don't repeat themselves.''

Brown has said that the International Monetary Fund needs more resources to prevent the financial crisis spreading to eastern Europe and other developing economies.

Sarkozy suggested that the EU raise the amount of money it earmarks for aid to 20 billion euros ($25 billion) from 12 billion euros.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 28, 2008 13:43 EDT